Wow, DCWeek ran like a MACHINE! From checkin, to everything. It was a machine. Friendly people telling me where to go, all the AV systems worked, vendors were happy & prepared. This was a VERY well run conference.
The best events I attended were the 18 60 second pitches. Glen Hellman gave some AWESOME feedback to the pitchers as to why they were or were not given high scores. If you are going to pitch in the next year, and you didn’t write down what he said. Well, I guess you could ask me to post ’em. But you should have been paying attention.
The other event I liked was the election war room at QGA. I was underwhelmed by the feeds of live data coming in. I guess my expectations were more theatrical with streams of data coming in from all over. Although, at that time of day, the polls weren’t closed, so there wasn’t any data to come in. Getting over that small issue, the conversation for the first 2 hours was INCREDIBLY intelligent and amazing.
Clearly the people at QGA know their facts, and don’t make you feel stupid about it. I am NOT a political guy, but these people are, and they are good (and polite and kind about it). The commentary around the room from the ex-marine Tim and the PR lady from TD-Bank (didn’t catch your name) and the couple from Ohio in for the elections was great. Just a smart smart discussion.
The fire side chat with Andy Carvin was great, and I thought Peter Corbett did a good job interviewing him. Great flow of that conversation.
I stopped into the free lancer’s tips from the trench talk. After 20 minutes they were talking about what caused them to go out on their own. That might be a salient point, but some of that could have been put into the bio for the speaker. Let’s dive into the meat of the topic, and skip the bios (or publish them elsewhere). Everyone has a data device, and can read it before or during the talk, so dive into great content right away.
Artisphere is a GREAT venue. Can’t wait to go back there for the Art.
What really made DCWeek a good event were the people. I offered my chocolate covered espresso beans to anyone who wanted them, and it was a great ice breaker. Glad I did because it offered me the chance to meet SO many interesting individuals.
It seemed to me that there were people there looking for a bit more tech. As if they had their jobs or startup already in their head, but they weren’t sure where to go. I didn’t go to “how the internet works” but I’d be curious to see if more sessions like that are needed in the future. I’d also offer to present my “how to unsuccessfuly run an online retail business” talk. Again, to help others avoid the mistakes I made.
That’s it for now. Time to catch up on my other projects!